Teaching Delayed Gratification: A Gift that Lasts a Lifetime

With online shopping, I can receive something within twenty-four hours, sometimes even same day. Heaven help us if we have to wait even two whole days. Be careful. We need to build a sense of delayed gratification for ourselves – and for sure, it’s important for our children.

My granddaughter is getting her big-girl bed. We had a countdown: three weeks, two weeks, and finally, three days, two days, the BIG day. The excitement just grew and grew, and it was a wonderful thing. That’s building delayed gratification.

You go to Target and your five-year old wants a new toy truck. Use it as a teaching opportunity. Instead of buying it right there and then, how about using one of the following if they apply?

A. “We can’t afford this right now. Let’s save our money and come back later.”

B. “Let’s put this on your birthday list.”

C. When you save your money, let’s come back and look at the toy store, too. They have even more trucks.”

Delayed gratification is a REALLY good thing. It’s just not good parenting to buy whatever a child says he wants on demand. Building the excitement leading up to receiving the desired item teaches patience. It also teaches the value of saving for something, and it’s great to learn that we can’t always get what we want right when we want it.

Now those lessons learned last a lifetime.